WHO'S HOT
Jockeys Calvin Borel and Corey Lanerie had the most wins last week at Churchill Downs, with Borel, who tops the standings, going 7 for 22 and Lanerie going 6 for 23.
Lanerie also had six seconds and three thirds, meaning he was in the exacta 52 percent of the time and in the trifecta 65 percent of the time.
Corey Nakatani also made the most of limited opportunities, going 3 for 7.
WHO'S HOT
The 40 Percent Club
Heading into June's third week, the only members of this elite group among the meet's top dozen trainers were Rudy Rodriguez and Steve Asmussen, with identical 10-for-25 records (40 percent); and Alan Goldberg, who was 7 for 17 (41 percent).
HURON TOWNSHIP, Mich. - Robert Gorham, who won the training title in Pinnacle Race Course's 2008 inaugural meet and again last year, won three races Sunday to tie with James Jackson in this year's race. Gorham won consecutive races starting with Tropic Rose ($4.40) in the second race. Pauliano Pkwy ($7.40) and Motion Me On ($12.80) followed.
"I have 48 stalls at the track, including a few supplemental stalls next to the barn and they're all full," Gorham said during a break between surgeries at his Kalamazoo veterinary clinic. "All told, we have about 64 head in training."
OCEANPORT, N.J. − Heading into the Monmouth Stakes last weekend, trainer John Forbes had not considered Get Serious a candidate for the United Nations, Monmouth Park's Grade 1 turf stakes July 3.
The U.N. was still not in Forbes's plans Saturday night, hours after Get Serious pulled off the 7-1 upset over a field that included Presious Passion, a two-time U.N. winner.
By Sunday morning, however, the U.N. started to creep into the conversation.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - How about this for a week's worth of work in the saddle? A .667 winning percentage spread over two tracks; a couple of feature race victories, including a stakes; plus every non-winning mount finished in the money. Not bad for a rider who many consider on the verge of "semi-retirement."
MIAMI - Big Drama returned from a more than nine-month layoff to win last Saturday's Ponche Handicap in impressive fashion. But it was the performance the previous afternoon of the old-timer Lord Robyn that may have had David Fawkes smiling the most when he reflected on the weekend after training hours at Calder on Monday.
Connie and Michael, who made auspicious debuts at 2 and 3, arrived in New York on June 8 to begin preparations for the Grade 1 Mother Goose Stakes on June 26.
Trained in Kentucky by Ken McPeek, Connie and Michael shipped into Dominick Schettino's Belmont Park barn and has been galloping daily over the training track. Schettino's assistant is Anthony Bonomo Jr., whose father Anthony Bonomo Sr., heads the racing partnership known as Brooklyn Boyz Stables.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Since winning the New York Handicap in 2006 with Noble Stella, trainer Roger Attfield has only sent three horses down to Belmont Park from his Canadian base.
Saturday, Attfield will have two of the seven runners entered in the $150,000 New York Breeders' Cup Stakes, a 1 1/4-mile turf race now run under allowance conditions. Attfield will be represented by Lady Shakespeare and Ave, both of whom are coming off solid efforts in their most recent starts.
When owner-trainer Joe Faulkner's Porters Court arrived at Thistledown this spring, he was lugging a 13-race losing streak with him. That ended in his first start here when the Canadian-bred gelding won on June 2 at odds of 105-1, paying $213.80 for a $2 wager.
When Porters Court returned to the races here Tuesday, he again received little respect from the bettors and was sent off at 30-1. He won again, paying $63.80. A $2 parlay on the Rodney Dangerfield of Thistledown would have returned $6,820. Lyndon Hannigan rode Porters Court to both of his victories.
